Page 38 of The Brave and the Reckless (Bravetown #1)

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N OAH

Esra was going to occupy my mind no matter what.

I could try fighting it, try and be nothing but her live-in co-worker, get annoyed at her laundry forever being left in the washer– but why bother when the alternative meant getting to drag my tongue all over her body while she lay in my bed solving crosswords in old newspapers?

I accepted my fate. I was done. She was sinking her claws into me, figuratively and literally, and I was going to say thank you and ask for seconds.

After that night at the ranch, Esra spent more time at the stables. Not only did Crumble walk a lot smoother than Tornado, but she was also smaller in every way, which meant Esra was physically more comfortable, and by extension less nervous .

Even with her newfound interest in learning how to ride, part of me had expected her to show up every other day, get on the horse for thirty minutes, and then run off to go about her life.

Instead, she stuck around the stables. She asked me about feeding schedules and brushing manes, and I overheard her asking the other people working with the horses about saddle types and horseshoes and the difference between ponies and horses.

She didn’t shy away from physically helping out either, though after she twisted her wrist when trying to lift the wheelbarrow, I assigned her to grooming and cleaning tack– both of which she accepted without protest.

I managed to pull her aside for quick kisses, but the stables were generally too busy and too open for more than that.

We still had our “seven minutes in heaven”– as she called them– every day, but they got more frantic as we tried to make the most of the limited time we had to ourselves.

There always seemed to be way too many people around.

“… so it’s cool that you’re technically a mutant, but it’s really nothing you should be worried about,” she told Cookie while brushing his mane.

I leaned against the stall door and watched her.

I’d cleaned Crumble’s hooves in the next stall over and had listened to Esra educate the horse on heterochromia , the condition that meant he had one blue and one brown eye.

Her interactions with the animals were so goddamn pure.

She’d gone from recoiling and calling Tornado a cow to treating my horses like her best friends.

I could have watched her braid manes and ramble about everything and nothing all day, and I’d end up with facial cramps from smiling.

Her lightheartedness was becoming intoxicating like that .

“Night, guys! Turn off the lights when you leave, okay?” Hector called from the front of the stables.

“We got it.” I waved and nodded at him. Once he was gone, I turned back to Esra, who had stilled with the brush mid-air, eyes on me.

“Were you watching me?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“I’m not sure if that’s sweet or creepy.”

“Based on what I was thinking while watching you, very sweet actually.”

“Oh?” She wiggled her brows. “Are you sweet on me , Noah Young?”

Her question shattered my smile even if she was only teasing. I wasn’t sure what I was when it came to her these days. I knew what I shouldn’t be. Because of her brother. Because she’d be leaving soon. Because I had nothing to offer to a girl like her.

“Would you prefer me watching you while thinking about how I want to tie you up and edge you until you can’t even remember your own name?” I deflected.

Esra grinned and popped her hip, all sass. “Tie me up? Are you going to rope me in with a lasso?”

“Maybe.” I opened the stall door and nodded for her to come out.

Esra grabbed the grooming basket and slipped past me. She raised her brows. “I think I just found my hard limit, and it’s getting naked in the stables.”

“Mud is fine, but stables are the limit?” I asked and latched the door to Cookie’s stall.

“It’s the smell.”

“Noted. ”

“That said…” She dropped the basket and brushed her hands off on her shirt.

It read “I was put on this earth to be hot and smart” in bright pink letters, and I couldn’t disagree with it.

Esra fluttered her dark lashes at me and wrapped both arms around my neck.

The text on her shirt disappeared as she pressed her perfect soft body into me.

“…I wouldn’t mind being tied up. I think. ”

My responding groan rumbled deep. As if her big doe eyes blinking up at me, and her tits against my chest, weren’t enough to set me on edge.

“We’ll have to take a raincheck on that until the next time I can take you to the ranch.

I have a feeling someone would notice if we didn’t come home tonight. ”

She scrunched her nose up. “Fine, then just take me home.”

We’d been walking from the park to staff housing together a lot the last few days, but we always split apart as soon as others were around.

As far as most people knew, Esra and I had struck up a truce at best. We may have spent some time together out here, but most of the stable staffers were older or lived on the ranches surrounding Wild Fields, so they had very little to do with our roommates– or Esra’s brother.

“I’m not taking you to my room,” I said and wrapped my arms around her waist.

“Why not?” She stuck her bottom lip out in that silly pout of hers.

I caught it between my teeth this time. Esra let out a whimper that almost made me forget my self-restraint.

The sound embedded itself in my mind, to be replayed again and again whenever I’d get myself off.

I was close to throwing her over my shoulder and carrying her to the tack room, just to spread her legs and see how many more desperate little noises I could draw from her.

“If I got you in my room alone, and you let me tie you up, I’d fuck you so thoroughly, my sheets would smell like you for days.

I love the way you scream for me, princess, but those walls are thin.

And that’s the worst possible way for Sanny to find out that I’m knuckles-deep inside his little sister every single fucking day. ”

She swallowed, eyes dropping to my lips. “Not on Wednesdays.”

“Yet.”

Last Wednesday, Sinan had joined me at the ranch again to continue painting, nixing any notion I had of getting Esra back to my large bed in my very private bedroom.

I had plans for us though. On our next day off, I’d make her come in each room of that house, until every miserable memory was replaced by visions of her body sprawled out under mine.

Her eyes narrowed, a wicked little smile kicking up her lips. “How do you feel about getting naked in the stables?”

“Why? Are you reconsidering letting me tie you up and fuck you senseless?”

“No.” Esra licked her lips and glanced left and right to make sure we were all alone. Instead of answering, she loosened her arms from my shoulders and sank to her knees in front of me. “But there are other ways you can be inside of me.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but my tongue ran dry when she pulled a hair tie from her pocket and quickly twisted her brown waves into a stubby ponytail without breaking eye contact.

She was prepared for this to get messy. Images of painting that pretty face of hers in cum immediately flooded my thoughts.

That probably wasn’t what she had in mind.

I couldn’t help it. This woman was activating every primal instinct in me, making me want to mark her in every way possible.

Esra’s hands roamed over my jeans, up my thighs.

She popped the button open, but didn’t touch the zipper.

Instead, she leaned in and slotted her teeth around the tiny piece of metal.

Eyes on me, she lowered the zipper inch by inch, her hot breath sinking through the fabrics.

This was the sight I’d come back to. It didn’t matter that my dick wasn’t in her mouth yet.

Was this what it was like to be seduced?

This wasn’t about Ace Ryder or even her own pleasure.

She was doing this for me, and it sent my pulse into overdrive.

“Fuck,” I grunted when she tugged my jeans down, only to bite down on the elastic of my boxer briefs. Her teeth grazed over my skin, then she pulled her head back and let the fabric snap against my skin. I hissed at the momentary sting. It sent a hot rush straight down to my cock.

“Kiss to make it better?” She fluttered her lashes with faux innocence and licked the spot right above the waistband.

I needed something to hold on to and only found the back of her head. Esra actually smiled as I gripped her hair in both fists. She skimmed her teeth along the top of my briefs and continued her little trick on her way across the width of my hips. Bite, pull, let it snap, lick. Repeat.

By the time she’d made it from one hip bone to the other, I was rock hard and straining against my underwear.

“What are you doing, princess?”

“Just enjoying myself. I like your little moans. ”

I involuntarily let out another one because she liked it.

“Open that pretty little mouth for me,” I huffed and pushed down the last fabric barrier between me and her tongue. Drops of pre-cum already clung to my tip.

“Stop telling me what to do,” she sing-sang with a big smile and rolled her eyes at me. Little brat. Fuck, I loved how much fun she was having even when I got rough with her, both with my words and my actions.

“Fine. I’ll fuck that grin off you.” I pinched her chin and guided her face right in front of me. When she still kept her perfect pouty lips sealed, all cheeky and proud of herself, I pushed my thumb in between them. She lapped at me without further prompting, so fucking eager.